Evacuating the Premises

by Ardhys De Leon, Editor-in-Chief

Every school performs a series of fire drills to ensure that the students and staff know the protocols for this type of emergency; although the chances of getting an actual fire are slim. However, for students and staff members, when the alarms rang, their confusions were met with a shock of reality as they realized that the drill was real.

“It was scary because I thought it was a drill, then I saw the fire trucks outside and I was shocked…I learned to not fool around during fire drills because they can be very serious,” sophomore Dean Zouvelos said.

At about 10 am, – during third period – one of the rooms in the second floor experienced a mild smoke condition. The administration was notified of this, and shortly after, the everyone was evacuated and firefighters were called.

“I think the school overall responded wonderfully, we faced less than ideal circumstances and the students responded very well,” Social Studies teacher Mr. Mengani said.

Students, teachers and staff members were led away from the premises while the authorities got on sight to fix the problem. It has been reported that the source from which the room caught smoke is unclear and thus, it will be under investigation.

Once the everyone was cleared to return to the building, the high school and middle school were brought to the auditorium, where the principal, Mrs. Schneider explained what had occurred.

Students were able to return to their regularly scheduled classes, although lunch was pushed back to 7th period for the high school. The rooms affected by the smoke were vacated for the rest of the day; teachers nor students could enter. The classes that were to normally take place in those rooms met in the auditorium for the rest of the day.